FRO

LETTER III.

ROM certain Premifes laid down in my two laft Letters upon the Subject of Honour, I think I may venture to draw this certain Conclufion, That an irreligious immoral Man, deftitute of all Senfe of Duty and Devotion towards God, and of Juftice towards Men, can never be a Man of Honour.

That Honour, properly fo called, arifes from a certain Greatness of Mind, exerting itself upon all Occafions with a Propriety and Dignity of Behaviour, I prefume, will hardly be denied me: And that Irreligion and Immorality proceed purely from a certain Littleness of Mind, a Meanness of Soul, an Emptiness of Head, and a Bafeness of Heart, I fhall endeavour to prove, and leave the honeft Reader to judge whether two fuch Contrarieties can fubfifi in the fame Subject, much lefs whether the one can produce the other.

This View of the Cafe fuggefts to me, (by the bye) a charitable Ground of Hope for many of our modern Unbelievers, that their poor Souls will fare better at the last, than at present they seem either to defire or deferve; as their Infidelity proceeds purely from a Poverty of Genius, and Shortnefs of Understanding, we charitably hope, that merciful Abatements will be made on that Account, and that they will be treated rather with the Indulgence due to Blockheads, than the Severity due to obftinate Difobedience and Impenitence; that their irreligious Contempt of Divine Worship will be imputed to

a natural Coldnefs and Heavinefs of Soul, which renders them as uncapable of exerting exalted Acts of Piety or Devotion, as of compofing an heroic Poem, or a fine Piece of Mufic; and therefore, like other Idiots, whilft they continue tame and inoffenfive, they may be tolerated with proper Reftrictions in Civil Societies; but if they grow ungovernable and mifchievous, they ought to be laid under proper Restraints and Confinement, that they may neither injure the Properties of private Perfons, nor disturb the Peace of the Public. But

to return.

True Greatness of Mind difcovers itself in great and extensive Views, and generous Designs, it endeavours to enter into the true Nature of Things, to confider the true State of every momentous Question in a juft Light, to procure all poffible Means and Affiftance to form a right Judgment upon it, and a Finefs of Mind to act agreeably to fuch practical Conclufions as naturally and clearly flow from them. This is true Greatness of Mind in the Exercife of its intellectual Faculties. This was the glorious Character given to the Beraan Jews, Acts xvii. II. that they were more noble (yvérego ov) than thofe of Theffalonica, in that they searched the Scriptures daily, to know whether the Doctrines preached by St. Paul, concerning Jefus Christ, as proved from the Writings of the Old Teftament, were true or no. The Jews of Thesalonica, like our modern Unbelievers, being moved with Envy, (v. 5.) at their believing Chriftian Neighbours and the Apostles, who had been the Preachers of this New Religion, would not fo much as beftow

a Thought to examine whether the Apoftles Doctrine was worthy of their Attention or Belief, but they raised the Mob upon them, and fet the whole City in an Uproar, and dragged them before the Magiftrates, as Difturbers of the public Peace, and Enemies to the Civil Government. These that have turned the World upfide down, are come hither alfo, and these all do contrary to the Decrees of Cefar, Jaying that there is another King, one Jesus, v. 7. But the Bereans acted at a quite different rate, they heard with Patience, and examined without Prejudice, the Nature and Defign of the Apoftles Doctrine, and the Evidences produced out of the Law and the Prophets for their Confirmation, being determined to act agreeably to their fober and rational Conviction, and accordingly. (as the Text tells us, v. 12.) many of them believed. Now, if a candid and impartial Examination of a Proposal, declared to be of the utmoft Confequence to Mankind, be a certain Mark of a great and ingenuous Mind, and the acting agreeably to their most rational Conviction, be an indubitable Proof of the trueft Wisdom; an oppofite Behaviour, upon the fame Occafion, in the fame Circumftances, can only proceed from an idle, empty, trifling Head, or a corrupt difingenuous Heart.

The Foundation of all Religion is the Belief of a God, who is a Rewarder of them that diligently feek him. Now he that cannot, from the vifible Face of Nature and the Works of Creation, collect and infer the invifible Things of God; that cannot, from a juft Obfervation of the Immenfity, the Order, and Beauty of the vaft Syftem of the Univerfe, infer

the Neceffity of a FIRST CAUSE, All-wise, All-powerful, and in every Kind and Degree of Perfection, abfolutely Perfect, must be a Creature of contracted Views, narrow Apprehenfions, and a poor Understanding; whom, without Breach of Charity, or good Manners, we may venture to pronounce, as the Royal Pfalmift does, A FOOL.

The Man that allows the Exiftence of fuch a PERFECT BEING, and does not confider the Relation he stands in to that Being, and the several Obligations and Duties arifing from that Relation, must be a ftupid inconfiderate Creature, who has not fo good a Title to Honour and Gratitude as the Beafts of the Field; for, as the Prophet fays, The Ox knoweth his Owner, and the Afs his Mafter's Crib; but the profane irreligious Man forgets and defpifes the Great Author of his Being, and of every Bleffing he injoys in this World, and all his reasonable Hopes of Happiness in that which is to

come.

The Man that has Senfe enough to discover all this, and to draw juft and proper Conclufions from it, and yet acts difagreeably to his own Convictions, who lives in direct Defiance of all thofe Duties of Religion, which both Reason and Revelation dictate to every attentive Inquirer, discovers himself to be a weak, irrefolute, mean-fpirited Creature, who has not Courage enough to do what his Reason and Confcience affure him to be his Duty.

Now if A FOOL that has not Senfe enough to apprehend the very Foundation of a Question in Debate, nor the Ufe of the Terms, to draw proper

Conclufions from plain Premifes, nor pursue them into all their practical Confequences, in which hisIntereft and Duty are ultimately involved, or has not Courage or Gratitude enough to act agreeably to his own Convictions, can have any Pretenfions to Greatness of Mind, and by Confequence to Honour which arifes from it, and is convertible with it, Let the fillieft Reader judge.— And this is directly the Cafe of every irreligious Man.

A Great Mind cannot help furveying, with Wonder and Devotion, the Immenfity, the Order, the Beauty of the Works of God, and from thence. collect the infinite Power and Wisdom of him that made them, and preferves and directs their Courses and Operations. A Little Mind, on the other hand, faunters through every Scene of Life, as an indolent unconcerned Spectator, filling up the vacant Spaces with all the trifling Amusements and idle Diverfions that Ignorance and Folly can invent, without ever troubling his Head, how, or which way, he was fent into this World, or what fhall become of him hereafter; or if by Chance, or out of Curiofity, he should beftow a Thought that Way, it is not in a regular Method of Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of his Existence, and the Relation he ftands in to his Creator and the World about him, but fixes his Attention upon one or more partial Views; which, to an ignorant Mind, that confiders not the Relation it bears to the rest of the System, may appear infignificant or irregular. Mr. Addifon has very prettily compared one of thefe Minute Philofophers to a Fly upon one of the Pillars of St. Paul's, whofe Organs and Perceptions cannot perhaps ex